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John Carroll University Athletics

home of the Blue Streaks
MLAX celly
Anthony McFarlin
John Carroll handed Ohio Northern its first conference loss of the season. 
6
Ohio Northern ONUM 9-3, 5-1 OAC
14
Winner John Carroll JCUM 12-1, 6-0 OAC
Ohio Northern ONUM
9-3, 5-1 OAC
6
Final
14
John Carroll JCUM
12-1, 6-0 OAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Ohio Northern ONUM 1 2 1 2 6
John Carroll JCUM 2 4 3 5 14

Game Recap: Men's Lacrosse | | Spencer German, Senior Staff Writer

Men's Lacrosse Remains Undefeated in OAC Play with Win over ONU

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Coming into Friday, three undefeated teams sat atop the OAC Men's Lacrosse standings, by 3 pm, only two remained. 

Something had to give when John Carroll (12-1, 6-0) welcomed in Ohio Northern (9-3, 5-1) for a matinee showdown at Don Shula Stadium. It wasn't the Blue Streaks, who handed the Polar Bears their first loss in OAC play (9-3, 5-1), 14-6. The victory marked the sixth in a row for JCU. 

"I didn't think we played a full 60 minutes today," head coach Joe Rautenstrauch said after the game. "We knew they were going to play hard, they're very well coached defensively and they forced some stuff early in the game. At halftime, my message was just to reset and play our style of lacrosse for the last 30 minutes and I thought we did that." 

While JCU's leading scorer Matt Berdysiak continued his dominance with a five-goal performance, it was face-off man Cam Cecere who stole the show. The North Chili, NY native was nearly unbeatable at the X, winning 18 of his 21 draws to ensure the Blue & Gold controlled the pace of play from start to finish. It was his best performance of the season and a much appreciated one by Rautenstrauch, who described Cecere's effort as "massive," for the team. 

"Those are possessions, it's a two possession swing every time you can win a faceoff," Rautenstauch said. "He's a grinder, he wins them different ways whether it's clean wins forward, back faceoff battles where he's gotta scoop the ground ball in traffic. It's everything. I'd love to have 20 Cam Ceceres." 

A scoreless opening four minutes of play paved the way for junior Tanner Gill-Snow to get the scoring started with a goal at 10:59 of the quarter. The ensuing 7 minutes was all about defense as the two foes felt each other out until the 3:30 mark of the quarter, before ONU notched its first goal of the game to tie things up at one. 

That's the closest the Polar Bears would get to overtaking the Blue Streaks. 

Less than 90 seconds later, senior midfielder Ian Flynn found netting with his first goal of the day. He'd add another, his 22nd on the season, two minutes into the second quarter, before Tanner Gill-Snow (from Brendan Whitty) netted his second goal of the contest 50 seconds later, ballooning the lead to 4-1 and forcing a Polar Bears timeout. 

The final few seconds of the half made for some fireworks after Ohio Northern notched a potential momentum swinging goal with 12 seconds to go to cut the John Carroll lead to 5-3. The Blue Streaks, however, didn't blink and stole momentum back on the final second of the half as Berdysiak fired his goal first goal of the game. 

That momentum continues for Berdysiak and the Blue Streaks in the second half, as the Buffalo native went on to score three of the next four JCU goals through the third and early fourth quarters, eclipsing the 50-goal plateau on the season.
He'd add a fifth late in the fourth stanza as JCU poured it on against ONU goalie Cole Zeferakis, whose 7.40 goals against average was tops in the OAC entering the game.  

Offensively, Berdsyiak's five-goal day stood out for John Carroll, but Gill-Snow, Flynn and Kevin Hack all recorded multi-goal games of their own. Hack added two assists as well. 

Now just two teams remain unbeaten in Ohio Athletic Conference play: John Carroll and Baldwin Wallace, who escaped with an 11-10 win over Otterbein on Friday. Fittingly, the two cross-town rivals collide at Don Shula Stadium next week.  

"We'll prepare the same for Baldwin Wallace that we do for every game, the biggest difference is our guys will be laser focused every day," Rautenstrauch said of the matchup. "We know how big of a game that is for a multitude of reasons."
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